BHS girls b-ball seeded ninth, opens playoffs against Leuzinger

Wednesday

Feb 19, 2014 at 2:58 PM

RIDGECREST — One of the best seasons in school history, a league championship and 19 wins added up to a middle-of-the-pack seed for the Burroughs girls basketball team in the CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs. The Burros were seeded ninth in the bracket, and begin postseason play in the Burroughs Barn Thursday against Leuzinger (Lawndale).

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

RIDGECREST — One of the best seasons in school history, a league championship and 19 wins added up to a middle-of-the-pack seed for the Burroughs girls basketball team in the CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs. The Burros were seeded ninth in the bracket, and begin postseason play in the Burroughs Barn Thursday against Leuzinger (Lawndale)."When the playoffs start, it's all about matchups, getting a little luck and how you're playing," Burros head coach Robert Campbell said. "If you start playing well and you get some momentum going, good things can happen."Burroughs was seeded one spot lower than last season despite a better record and a better finish in the DSL. The Burros received the No. 9 seed despite finishing the regular season with the third-most wins in the division — less than only fifth-seeded Estancia (23-3) and third-seeded La Canada (21-5). "It doesn't really bother us," Campbell said. "I'm not into all that seeding stuff — I think they're just guessing when they do that stuff."In MaxPreps' computer rankings for Division 3A, Burroughs is ranked only behind La Canada — in the CIF-SS rankings the Burros were never ranked higher than eighth. But the Southern Section values strength of schedule, and that's why Burroughs was seeded in the middle of the bracket's top 16 teams. The top seeds went to the two teams with the strongest schedules, not the strongest records — Inglewood (10-17) and Santa Margarita (14-13)."We did lose two of our last three games, and that didn't help us," Campbell said. "I think we would have moved up a spot or two if we would have beaten Victor Valley or Silverado."Burroughs' half of the Division 3A bracket features four league champions, while the bottom half of the bracket has only two. One of the league champs lurking on top with the Burros is fifth-seeded Estancia, the team that eliminated BHS in the second round of last year's playoffs.Burroughs opens the playoffs Thursday night at 6 p.m. against Leuzinger (9-19) at home. Just like last season, the Burros begin the postseason at the Burroughs Barn against an opponent with a losing record."It's always a good start to get a home game, get the juices flowing and then we'll go from there," Campbell said. "I told the kids they just have to relax and play like its a regular game — if they play well, we'll be fine. When we play good defense and our guards play well, we're pretty good."Should Burroughs beat the Olympians in the first round, it will meet the winner of the first round game between ninth-seeded St. Joseph (Lakewood) and St. Lucy's (Glendora) on Saturday. St. Joseph was runner-up in Division 3A last season, and the Burros will host the Jesters if both seeded teams win by virtue of a successful coin flip outcome on Tuesday. In order to make a deep postseason run, Burroughs will need to continue playing stellar defense as it did throughout the regular season. The Burros' offense is heavily reliant on the shooting of guards Alex Simmons, Aubrey Hayes and Madison Schiller, and will need production from forwards Chantia Jennings, Talia Forsythe and their other inside players if the backcourt has an off night. "We have to have a balanced attack, Campbell said. "Hopefully our post players will play well and we can get them going — we can be pretty good when we get our outside-inside game going."

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